2025 · Game Boy Advance game & generative artwork
LIFT (a self portrait)
LIFT (a self portrait) comprises 1,000 fully on-chain generative artworks, each functioning as both a digital artwork and a playable Game Boy Advance game.
Each unique work has visual, musical, and mechanical elements generated at creation, preserved on Ethereum, and playable through an emulator or physical Game Boy Advance cartridge.
At the center is a character I refer to as Pixel Man, a self portrait engaged in an ongoing ritual of lifting a stone, sustained by the player’s daily participation and a wider pixel community.
By turning an on-chain artwork into a functioning physical game, I propose a new relationship among code, object, player, and artwork.
With Glitch Marfa
Glitch did an incredible job documenting LIFT and writing about it. Their essay is a companion to this page, and I would love for you to spend time with it.
Featured essay
The Infinite Game: Snowfro’s LIFT (a self portrait)
A reading of LIFT as a playable artwork, a self-portrait and a connection between digital instructions and physical things.
Read the essay at Glitch (opens in a new tab)Explore a copy
Loading LIFT #147…
About the work
Keeping the rock up
I was thinking about the pressure of the last few years, and about how much I have depended on other people. The game asks you to help somebody carry a weight, every day, for a month or more.
It is a self portrait, but I want you to be able to see yourself in either position: the person under the rock or one of the people coming by to help. Sometimes the person making it harder is you, too.
You have to keep coming back. Some days it is easy and other days you forget, or something goes wrong. That difficulty is part of what I wanted the game to express.
Listen
Loading the music…
The game
A hundred taps a day
Press A to lift. Each copy asks you to keep going for 30 to 90 days, with supporters and items changing what happens along the way.
How to play
The Rock
Without help, the rock takes about 24 hours to crush the character. Items can change how quickly it falls.
Daily Lift
Tap A to lift. Around a hundred taps a day keep the rock up, depending on the active items.
Continuous Run
The game must run continuously. Losing power or restarting the emulator ends the run, even if you were close to finishing.
Items
Supporters bring things like energy drinks, fairy dust, bear markets and hacks. Some make lifting easier; others add weight or change the length of the run. Many came from my experience building Art Blocks.
Countdown And Endurance
Countdown mode has a set target of 30 to 90 days. Endurance mode lets you keep going beyond that target.
Victory
There is a message at the end for the people who finish. I would like you to find it there.
A few frames from the game
These saved examples are from LIFT #147. The explorer above follows the artwork you select; these sheets stay here so you can examine how the animation is built. Click either image to enlarge it.
The rock changes across five drawn phases.
Four animation frames. Sitting, hanging and jumping have their own sequences.
From the sketchbook
Before it was LIFT
Early screens carried the name “Self Portrait.” These drawings, sprite tests and gameplay captures trace the development of the characters and the world around them.
Development material, not examples of the final minted artworks.
Character studies & an early animation
The supporters
324 people drew themselves
I asked 324 collectors, artists, family members and friends to draw themselves in sixteen by thirty-two pixels. Some spent hours making those two frames. These were people who had been around for me, and I wanted to give them a place in the work.
Each game gets 20 of their drawings. I love that somebody can see themselves showing up in a Game Boy game, on an actual cartridge.
Finish a run and all 324 animated supporters can appear together.
Display your Pixel Man as a portrait
Collectors can set the artwork to Pixel Man portrait mode. Click to switch between flat and 3D; double-click to return to the scene.
From the machine
Working it out in thread
The generated file is only one view of the work. These tests show the paths on the machine and the resulting stitches at different sizes.
Embroidery tests
Pixel Man’s stitch paths loaded on an embroidery machine.
A series of stitched Pixel Men, comparing sizes and how each pixel is filled.
Off the screen
A cartridge you can hold
I made LIFT to be played on a handheld. We bought original GBA game boxes to get the dimensions and feel of the packaging right.
Played off the screen
Pixel Man and the rock on a translucent pink handheld.
A physical LIFT cartridge with its illustrated label.
The printed pieces for LIFT #147
These are files generated by the artwork, ready for the physical package. This is a fixed example of #147, not a preview of whichever LIFT is selected above.
The unfolded print layout, with this copy’s scene and supporters.
The cover carries this copy’s character and animation frames.
The generated label for this cartridge.
The packaging & generated files
Cartridge And Box
We bought original GBA game boxes to get the dimensions and feel right. Each LIFT makes its own box graphic, booklet cover, cartridge sticker and poster.
Generated Goods
The same artwork generates its box art, cartridge sticker, booklet graphics, poster, thumbnails and embroidery files, along with its one-of-one Game Boy Advance ROM. The character and colors stay with that particular copy.
Intended Play
I made LIFT to be played on a handheld with a cartridge in it. Computer emulation is another way to play, as long as the session keeps running.
Marfa · Art Blocks Weekend 2025
LIFT in the room
Glitch’s exhibition in Marfa brought LIFT into a shared physical space during Art Blocks Weekend: a rock overhead, a table for building, pixel figures on the walls, and the game in your hands.
The people around the work became part of the experience, too.
Glitch’s writing and documentation give this exhibition its wider context. Explore their LIFT page and essay ↗
Inside the exhibition
The gesture at the center of LIFT, brought into the exhibition space.
Photo: Dave Krugman
Visitors building with colorful LEGO pieces during the exhibition.
Photo: Dave Krugman
A wall of LEGO figures and creatures.
A handheld game beneath a large-screen presentation of the artwork.
More from the exhibition
Games and a puzzle
A retro console and CRT alongside the exhibition’s pixel figures.
Photo: Dave Krugman
Supporter portraits and Pixel Man spread across a jigsaw puzzle in progress.
Connections to the other work
- What you see
- A self-portrait and Game Boy Advance game
- What it contains
- An individual game with 20 supporters, generated characters, and its own physical packaging
- What came before
- Pixel Man, Chromie Squiggle, games, and physical production
- Where it leads
- The themes of support and participation continued in send/receive
A few more details
- A different game in every copy
- Every artwork makes its own GBA ROM with a generated character, supporters, scenery, items, and a target number of days to survive.
- 20 supporters
- 324 people made tiny two-frame self-portraits. Each game randomly gets 20 of them, so every artwork has a different group showing up for it.
- 30 to 90 days
- Each copy has its own target. The game needs to keep running for the whole time.
- Made for a handheld
- The software can become a GBA cartridge, box, booklet, poster, embroidery file, and a game you play on an actual handheld.
Edition, dates & provenance
- Art Blocks releasesourced
- Art Blocks · Ethereum
0x0000000222d40f1ae80791fdc42fa6eb5da6f80b
LIFT lives on Art Blocks. I linked the Glitch Gallery, Right Click Save, and ZKM records below.
Sources & research notes
Official / primary
- Art Blocks collection ↗
The official LIFT (a self portrait) reference for project facts and public links.
Useful for: project-facts · official-links
official project · primary · full text - Glitch Marfa LIFT essay ↗
Curatorial framing and exhibition context for the work.
Useful for: curatorial-context · exhibition-context
curatorial essay · supporting · full text - Right Click Save interview ↗
My own voice and interpretation of the project.
Useful for: artist-voice · project-context
artist interview · primary · full text
Institution / gallery / side site
- ZKM LIFT #147 ↗
Institutional record: collection or exhibition evidence and provenance context.
Useful for: institutional-context · provenance
institution record · primary · full text - Glitch 30 Days in Marfa ↗
Curatorial framing and exhibition context for the work.
Useful for: curatorial-context · exhibition-context
curatorial essay · supporting · full text - Glitch OT 2: The Pixel Man ↗
Curatorial framing and exhibition context for the work.
Useful for: curatorial-context · exhibition-context
curatorial essay · supporting · full text - LIFT side site ↗
The project's own public side-site, with read-only context and tools.
Useful for: side-site · public-tool-context
side site · primary · full text